How to Keep Relevant to Your Audience on Social Media
You've surely heard that you need to be on top of all the trends and things going on on Social Media to build your relevance online. But how does that work?
The Digital News Report 2022 revealed that the use of visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram for news consumption has increased 5 times among 18-24 year olds. In addition, social networks have replaced news sites as the main source of information for this audience. The prospect of expanding reach and audience draws the attention of media outlets, which seek to broadcast their content in other formats. Yes, "Let me TikTok this" is the new "Let me Google this".
This means people are finding out about global events based on what social accounts are talking about, and your account can be one of them. No, this doesn't mean you need to post or comment on current affairs, but you can use popular events as a hook to show your relevance (and knowledge) to your audience.
Note this doesn't mean you need to talk about things just for the sake of it - weak/fake storytelling is NEVER the option, as we said here. The questions you should be asking are: what about this interests my audience?
And once you have that question answered, you need to be creative to add that to your messaging and tone of voice.
It's like what we do in real life. And speaking of "being real", you've probably seen some people sharing some shots from that new social media Be.Real. If you haven't, don't worry, it's not long until other channels launch their own versions of the app. The idea of the channel, as the name suggests, is to show 'the real side' of the internet, with people sharing candid and spontaneous stories, once a day (only). One of the reasons why the app has become popular is the fact that there aren't Ads (yet). Does this stop companies from being there?
No. But in an organic environment, they need to explore creativity to engage with their audience. Chipotle has done it right:
The company knew it would be a difficult territory to enter, but thought that could be a good way to test the channel. By the way, it was not the first or last time the company based their content strategy on trending topics. Recently, the restaurant went viral by using another viral piece: the corn boy. That's a great example of featuring a topic everyone is talking about, but adapting it to the right audience.
Yes, "we could tell you all about it"...
Another good and easy example of that is the recent tributes paid by companies to Queen Elizabeth II. We could see different approaches, highlighting different aspects of her career and associating them with their mindsets. At Goho, for example, we focused on her leadership and resilience skills in a man's world. And that was us being real.
So, is reach everything?
No. Reach is important, but so is your messaging and positioning. Think of the outside world - before you invite new people to visit your store you need to make sure everything is running smoothly and your local customers have a great experience there. On social media, this is no different.
